On April 13, oikos hosted a webinar “Campaigning at Universities” to offer our members opportunity to learn how to campaign and integrate sustainability in economics and management.
The webinar featured Sophia Tickell, Co-Founder and Partner at Meteos, and J.Christopher Proctor, oikos Associate in Pluralist Economics. The speakers shared their experience with the participants and offered insights into the campaigning and advocating strategies.
Sophia Tickell spoke about the eight essential factors for developing a successful campaign strategy:
- Analysis: What is the problem you are trying to solve?
- Vision Statement: What you want to happen?
- Target Audience: Who are the people within the system who have the ability to make a change?
- Objectives: What are the outcomes you want to identify?
- Power Analysis: What is nature of the power of the people you are trying to influence?
- Key messages: What you want to communicate?
- Strategies/Tactics: How you want to bring change?
- Resources: What resources are available?
She also emphasized that knowledge of values, frames, and social norms of those people that advocacy groups try to influence is vital to creating a well-targeted and successful campaign.
J. Christopher described problems faced by student advocacy groups, in particular, he spoke about the lack of sharing information among local groups and overtime. He also emphasized the need for having more spaces to talk about the actions organized by these groups.
In breakout sessions, the participants completed exercise “Influencing University Authorities” to reflect on opportunities for advocating sustainability at their universities and develop relevant strategies.
The participants left the webinar with a better understanding of the campaign strategies and renewed sense of commitment to their sustainability-oriented advocacy initiatives.
Recorded version of the webinar is available here
